The Mary Lytle Papers date from 1909 to 1968 and document Lytle’s experience as the first midwife in Overton, Nevada. The collection contains medical certificates, professional correspondence with Nevada Assistant State Archivist Frederick C. Gale, a handwritten memoir, and black-and-white photographs.
The Mary Lytle Papers date from 1909 to 1968 and document Lytle’s experience as the first midwife in Overton, Nevada. The collection contains medical certificates, professional correspondence with Nevada Assistant State Archivist Frederick C. Gale, a handwritten memoir, and black-and-white photographs.
Collection is open for research.
Materials in this collection may be protected by copyrights and other rights. See Reproductions and Use on the UNLV Special Collections website for more information about reproductions and permissions to publish.
Material is arranged alphabetically. It is in original order.
Midwife Mary Virginia Perkins Lytle was born on June 21, 1883, in Overton, Nevada, a community that would become her life-long home. In 1904 she married John Lytle. Their daughter Genevieve was the first child born in Las Vegas, Nevada. After suffering the loss of her first three children, Lytle realized the need for a doctor or nurse in the isolated Southern Nevada region. She traveled to Salt Lake City, Utah, and trained in obstetrics. After graduating in 1909, Lytle returned to Overton, where she delivered babies for more than thirty years and never lost a child she delivered. She died on April 13, 1970.
Mary Lytle Papers, 1909-1968. MS-00231. Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.
Accession numbers T186, 1986-083.
Material was processed in 2016 by Joyce Moore. In 2017, as part of an archival backlog elimination project, John A. Heldt revised the collection description to bring it into compliance with current professional standards.